More information : [SK 4254 8862.] A glassworks, founded 1740 by William Fenny, is still standing and shortly to be scheduled. (1)
A glass-cone, (published as Old Kiln on O.S.25" 1957), and the foundations of ancillary buildings are the only remains of these works. These were excavated during 1962 and have now been scheduled as an industrial monument. The works was operative between 1740 and 1884-7 and re-opened for less than one year c.1900. (a)
GPs AO/65/51/7 and 8. (2)
SK 425 886. The glassworks cone. Scheduled no. SY602. (3)
The Catcliffe Glassworks were built circa 1740 by William Fenney of Bolsterstone. The cone is circa 20m high with a base 13m in dameter. It is built of dressed sandstone of 8 courses, the rest in brick. There are 8 arched openings and 4 arched windows. The hearth space is covered by concrete. Flues recorded but covered. (4)
A well-known landmark at Catcliffe,the 70 foot brick cone, is one of two cone furnaces which were built on the site in 1740 by William Fenney. His wife's parents - the Foxes, had owned the Bolsterstone Glasshouse, south of Stocksbridge, in the early 18th century. John Fox (1682-1738) ran the Bolsterstone glasshouse for a while, before running a pottery kiln at Sheffield Manor. In 1759 the Catcliffe works were taken over by the wealthy May family. Joseph and Thomas are listed in Baines directory of 1822 as Glass Manufacturers. In 1833 the partnership of Booth and Blunn took over. Henry Booth was an iron and steel magnate while Thomas Blunn had been described as a Glass blower. The works were the responsibility of Samuel Blunn in 1856 and his family had operated as Blunn Brothers until its closure in 1884.The census of 1871 records Joseph Ramsbottom Blunn, aged 40, born in Sheffield, as a Glass Manufacturer employing 17 men and 7 boys. Samuel Blunn, living next door at Rother Villa, is recorded as being a Landowner. In 1901 it was reopened by the firm C. Wilcocks and Co. who eventually went bankrupt. During the First World war, prisoners were housed here and in the General Strike of 1926 it was used as a canteen. (5)
William Fenney was forbidden to build a glassworks within 10 miles of the Bolsterstone works by his mother-in-laws will of 1738, and so set up the Catcliffe works. The two furnaces he set had a radically new design , the glass cone, which masively increased the draft through the furnace. Two cones were built, but only this one survives, it being the oldest extant glass cone in the country. (6) |